Did Jesus Claim to be God? Examining the Biblical Evidence
In modern culture, Jesus is often admired but misunderstood. As Dan Kimball noted in They Like Jesus but Not the Church, many people “understand Jesus as a peacemaker who loved others and died for what he believed in” but stop short of acknowledging His divinity (Kimball, 2007, 255). While this portrayal paints Jesus as an inspirational figure, it ultimately falls short of the claims Jesus made about Himself. Some argue that Jesus’ divine status was a later invention of the Church. For example, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code popularized the myth that Jesus’ divinity was “voted on” at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 (Brown, 2003, 233). These claims beg the question: What did Jesus actually say about Himself, and what did His disciples believe about Him? The Bible gives clear answers that strongly affirm Jesus’ divinity.
The Bible Claims Jesus is God
The Bible presents a singular message. God, who created everything, came to the earth as a man. He died and rose from the grave so we might live eternally with Him. The New Testament gives us an account of Jesus’ life, His teachings, and the work His disciples did following His death and resurrection. They testified about Jesus and built on the work of Jesus to establish a body of believers.
Peter declares that he is a witness to the life of Jesus, saying: “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (II Peter 1:16) John declares the same thing:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. (I John 1:1-3)
Finally, John tells us the conclusion he wishes us to reach concerning Jesus in John 20:30-31 “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The apostles testified that Jesus is God.
Jesus was not just a moral teacher. Jesus is the Son of God and claimed to be so. In Matthew 16:13-17, Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was. Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” to which Jesus affirmed the answer, stating that this revelation came from God Himself. In the Jewish context, “Son of God” was not merely honorary—it was “making himself equal with God” (John 5:17-18).
Jesus Used the Divine Name “I AM”
In John 8:58, Jesus declared, “Before Abraham was, I am.” His Jewish audience understood this as a direct reference to God’s self-identification in Exodus 3:14, “I AM WHO I AM.” Their response? They picked up stones to execute Him for blasphemy (John 8:59). Jesus was clearly invoking the divine name for Himself.
Jesus Affirmed His Identity During Trial
In Mark 14:61-64, the high priest asked Jesus, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus answered, “I am,” and referenced Daniel 7:13-14, a prophecy of divine authority and glory. The high priest tore his robes and accused Him of blasphemy, which confirms they understood His claim as divine.
Jesus Claimed Unity with the Father
In John 10:30, Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” The Jews again picked up stones, saying, “Because you, being a man, make yourself God” (v. 33). Jesus was not misunderstood; He was understood perfectly, and they considered His claim blasphemous because it was a direct claim to deity.
Jesus Accepted Worship
Worship is reserved for God alone (Exodus 20:3-5). However, Jesus repeatedly accepted worship without rebuking those who offered it:
- Matthew 14:31-33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’
- John 9:35-38 – “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped Him
- Matthew 28:9 – The women “took hold of his feet and worshiped him.”
If Jesus were not divine, such worship would have been idolatrous, and He would have corrected it. Instead, He affirmed it.
Jesus is the Way
Jesus not only claimed deity; He also declared that there is no other path to heaven except through Him. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Notice, Jesus did not say I am a way. He said I am the way. There is only one way to heaven, and it is through Jesus! After a particularly hard teaching that led some of his disciples to leave Jesus, he asked the twelve disciplines “Do you want to go away as well?” (John 6:67) Peter replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69) A few years later, following Jesus’ death and resurrection, Peter and John were arrested by the Jewish authorities for proclaiming Jesus. While on trial, Peter proclaims: “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12)
We Must Decide
These singular claims by Jesus, that he is God and that He is the only way to heaven, force us to make a decision. We must either accept Him or reject Him. C.S. Lewis famously argued that Jesus’ claims leave us with only three logical options: He was either a Liar, a Lunatic, or Lord:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952, 55-56)
If Jesus knowingly lied about his divinity and being the path to salvation, He was not moral. However, who would die to protect a lie? Would His closest disciples also lay down their lives to protect that same lie? Most of Jesus’ disciples died horrible deaths proclaiming Jesus. This makes it unlikely that Jesus was a conman.
What if he did not know he was lying, but had some mental infirmity? Jesus’ life and teachings, demonstrating unmatched wisdom, compassion, and power, bear qualities that are incompatible with delusion. Philosopher Peter Kreeft adds: “Jesus has in abundance precisely those three qualities that liars and lunatics most conspicuously lack: his practical wisdom… his deep and winning love… [and] his ability to astonish.” (Kreeft & Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, 1994, 60-61)
Even skeptics have recognized Jesus’ uniqueness. John Stuart Mill, a non-Christian, acknowledged the moral greatness of Christ, writing that no one could “find a better translation of the rule of virtue… than to endeavor so to live that Christ would approve our life” (Mill, Three Essays on Religion, 1874, 254-255).
Jesus is God
This leaves only one reasonable conclusion: Jesus is God. The evidence is overwhelming. Jesus claimed to be God. His disciples affirmed it. His life, death, and resurrection confirmed it. Moreover, millions of lives transformed by Him testify to it still today. To reject Jesus’ divinity is not only to misunderstand Him—it is to deny His own words and the unified witness of Scripture.
Hebrews 1:3 declares: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” One day, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11).
Jesus, God in the flesh, came not to condemn but to save. He offers this salvation to all who will believe, repent, confess, and be baptized for the remission of sin.